Into the Lions Den
by Sevenvoyager
Summary: Leonardo Renner is just a normal young man in a normal street. Or is he? What if this young man harbours a dark secret? One that forces him to go to Xavier's school for Gifted youngsters? What is the link between this man and a supervillan? There's only one way to find out.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men universe, that honour goes to Marvel. I only own Leonardo Renner.**

**I would like to thank DreamChaser 17 for her OC Rosalia and Rose of Fate 45 for her OC Jalia Thomas, thank you for letting me play with them, I will treat them with care. There's a person swooping the site named catspats31, this person obviously has no life and has more or less threatened to report me If i didn't delete my story. So thanks to this person I will no longer be accepting OC's out of fear of losing my account.**

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**Prologue:**

Twigs snapped to her left and she turned around sharply. Her warm breath visible in the cold air of the night. Twigs snapped to her right and she couldn't take it anymore. She started running, desperate to get out of this forrest. What had gotten into her to venture into it anyway? Twigs snapped behind her and she picked up the pace, panting from the effort. Something hard landed on top of her, making her plummet to the ground. She was turned around and stared into the icy cold eyes of a monster, she couldn't help it. She screamed.

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They say people are identified by their past, present and future. But is that even true? What if I were to tell you that it ain't true at all. People are identified by their actions, by their personalities. Not by what happened a long time ago.

This is a story of hardships, love, friendship and teamwork. Alone I wasn't much of a man, but when working together with the team I became the man I always wanted to be.

Who am I for saying this? Well let me tell you, my name is Leonardo Renner. And this is my story.

**12 years and 9 months after Prologue.**

"Leo! Come down, there's someone here to see you!" An elderly woman with Grey hair yelled up the stairs. She had a kind appearance all together and warm, inviting brown eyes.

"Coming Nana!" A child's voice yelled back. Moments later footsteps thundered down the stairs and a young boy of twelve years old came down the stairs and rounded the corner.

The young boy had a round face framed by long, wavy brown hair. His warm chocolate brown eyes were filled with a mischievous curiosity, but the thing that stood out most were the small black spots on his cheek that went up in a curve to his eyes.

When the young boy named Leo walked into the kitchen he saw a bald man in a wheelchair and an elderly man in a black suit sitting at the kitchen table. "Nana, who are they?" He asked softly, trying to hide himself into the side of the cabinet closest to him.

"Do not fear us child, we are here to help. My name is Charles Xavier, this is my associate Erik Lensher." The bald man in the wheelchair said, giving young Leo a kind and understanding look. The other man, Mr. Lensher didn't say much. He just stared at Leo in interest, as if he was cooking up some sort of plan. Needless to say, Leo didn't like this Mr. Lensher, the strange man gave off a bad vibe in his opinion.

"Nice to meet ya Mr. Xavier, Mr. Lensher. Why are ya here?" Leo asked the two men after greeting them. His southern Georgian accent stood out strong as he spoke.

"We're here to help you Leonardo, I understand you wish to go to school again?" Xavier asked the child, looking at him with his trademark stare, fingers folded into each other and resting on his chin.

"Have ya taken a good look at me? I can't go to no school. Ya know, because of my looks." Leo said rather annoyed as he pointed up and down his body.

"What if I were to tell you, that I run a school for people just like you. A school for mutants, hidden from the general public." _You are not alone Leonardo, there are others with gifts. Just like you child._

"If it's true what ya say, would I able to come? To follow classes?" Leo asked hopefully, he knew he couldn't stay with his parents. No matter how much they loved him, his physical mutations were becoming a problem. His father had a successful doctor's practice and he had become a liability to his fathers business. He couldn't stay hidden forever after all.

"Yes Leonardo, you would be able to do these things." Xavier simply answered.

"Alright, I'll do it. I'll go." Leonardo said.

When Leonardo arrived at the institute their were many other children running around and he often wondered if they were like him, the professor had said they were. But he hadn't seen anyone quite like him. They all looked normal.

He wasn't paying attention as he walked through the halls and he bumped into someone by accident.

"Hey! Watch it!" A female voice yelled at him from below. He looked down and saw a young girl of his age with dark brown wavy hair and icy blue eyes lying at his feet.

"Why should I watch it? Ya weren't paying attention either." Leo shot back to the strange girl.

"Why you-" The girl started to say as her hands glowed golden when a voice spoke up.

"Leonardo, Rosalia! I believe the both of you have a class to attend." The professor told his young charges with a rather serious look.

The two young teenagers glared at each other before mumbling a soft "yes professor.". The both of them went to their first class, which unfortunately, they shared.

"I can't believe this." Rosalia said with a rather annoyed sigh as she noticed Leo following after her. "Why are you following me?" She asked as she turned around to face him.

"Because I have to go the same way. I ain't doing it for my pleasure." Leo replied quickly, he didn't really know his way and she seemed interesting to be honest.

"Really? So you're in this math class? Alright then, I'll show you where it is." She said as she walked all the way to the classroom and waited in front of the closed door.

"So what's your name?" Leo asked as he leaned against the door post.

Rosalia looked at him rather skeptically but answered anyway. "Rosalia Arcuri, what's yours?"

"Leonardo Renner." Leo answered with a small nod.

The classroom doors opened and the students were ushered inside by an African American woman with a small scar on her cheek. School had officially started.

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**And there we have the first chapter, I hope you enjoyed this and if you have any pointers or ideas or prompts for me please leave them in a review or PM me. Thanks for reading!**


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